Site Mobile Navigation

An Iraqi's Quest to Compete in the Winter Olympics

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. - High in New York State's Adirondack mountains, deep within the snow-covered pine forests next to a homey village setting worthy of a Currier and Ives print, Faisel Ghazi Faisel of Baghdad works and waits to make his contribution to his war-torn homeland.

He does it on an icy chute a mile long, his face inches from the surface as he rides a sled not much bigger than a cafeteria tray at 70 miles an hour. Though Faisel has virtually no experience as a winter-sports athlete, he is on a mission to become the first Iraqi to participate in the Winter Olympic Games -- something he sees as a small, but symbolic, achievement.

After considering everything from skiing to speed skating, Faisel, 24, has settled on skeleton, the head-first rush down the same banked, twisting track used for bobsledding.

"When your country has been invaded, I don't care what your politics, you feel defeated," Faisel said here recently as he was training with the help of the United States Olympic Committee. "Our people need something to feel part of the world again. I want to carry the Iraq flag into the 2006 Olympic stadium in Italy. It comes down to pride. It is a commodity that is hard to come by when there is destruction on every street of your country."

Faisel's quest had been fruitless, even desperate, until late last year when he called the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. Raised in Iraq, Faisel has spent the past several years attending college in Australia. Aware that Iraq had never had an athlete in the Winter Olympics, he started making dedicated, if unsophisticated, attempts to learn how to ski, skate, ski jump and snowboard when he was in Australia. Experts he came across in each sport greeted his forays with varying degrees of empathy, skepticism or ridicule.

Faisel said he appealed for help and advice from the Iraqi Olympic Committee, which has never sponsored a Winter Olympics athlete, as well as other Olympic-level sport federations in a handful of countries. They offered little aid, said Faisel, who had yet to compete in, or show aptitude for, any winter sport.

When the Iraqi war began in 2003, Faisel temporarily lost contact with his mother, a college professor, and his father, a civil engineer, in Iraq. They have been his means of financial support.

"About the only news I did get was that a best friend of mine had been killed," said Faisel, who spent a few years as a child in Wales and speaks fluent English. "Things just started to get worse and worse for me. I was broke and in debt. For a while, I slept in the street. I let my studies go. I was facing visa and immigration problems."

A friend took him in and Faisel said he slowly regained his footing. "I got back in touch with my family and I fixed the problems with my visa and my college studies," he said.

He had not abandoned his Olympic dream, but did not know where to turn next.

"As a last resort, I decided I would call the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation," Faisel said. "The U.S. was the last place I expected to help me. I was surprised, they said to me, 'If you come to Lake Placid, we will try to help you."'

Home to the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980, Lake Placid has maintained its Olympic facilities through the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which also built an Olympic training center that houses and feeds athletes. With the aid of the U.S.O.C., Faisel settled into life in Lake Placid and made his first skeleton run down the ice-laden track at Mount Van Hoevenberg on Jan. 4. He started at the halfway point so he would not go too fast; his speed never topped 45 miles an hour.

In a similar winter event, the luge, racers go down feet first. In the skeleton, the head, arms and shoulders lead the way.

"When someone takes that first trip, I know that at the bottom, they'll either be smiling or crying," said Steve Peters, a development team coach and official for the American national skeleton team. "When Faisel got there he had a big grin on his face and asked when he could do it again."

Skeleton had been recommended to Faisel by an athlete friend in Australia, because as a relatively new sport -- it was sanctioned by the Olympics in 2002 -- it seemed more realistic that he might be able to make the jump from beginner to high-level competitor. As a former competitive soccer player growing up in Iraq, Faisel came from an athletic family. His uncle was a national sprint champion.

"We noticed right away that Faisel has leg strength and power," Peters said.

Within three days, Faisel, who is 5 feet 10 inches and 175 pounds, was taking runs from the top of the track, reaching speeds up to 70 m.p.h.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

"I know others might wonder if what Faisel is doing is a publicity stunt," Peters said. "But he's extremely dedicated, a good athlete and he's made remarkable progress."

The United States skeleton coaches routinely recruit and audition about 50 athletes a year and keep roughly 10 on the developmental team. If Faisel had been a United States citizen, Peters said, they would have invited him to remain in Lake Placid.

Faisel and more than 25 American athletes are training six days a week at the center.

"He has been welcomed with open arms," said Terry Kent, executive director of the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. "We were all curious about who or what was going to show up. But he quickly won guys over because he is so committed to what he's trying to do.

"Our athletes have had this great opportunity to exchange ideas and learn, to say, 'So what's it like over there?"'

Before he came to the United States, Faisel worried what other Iraqis might think of his taking assistance from American officials. "I went on Iraqi Web sites and asked if anyone would be offended," he said. "And I got about 20 responses saying: 'Take the help. Don't worry."'

Arriving in Lake Placid, he expected to have discussions about the war.

"I have no anti-American feelings," Faisel said. "We talk about it. It is a hard time for Iraq. Even though things were really bad for us in our country, there have been a lot of changes. The only way to gauge change is the ultimate results, and who can tell you what the results will be?

"I just want us to be a normal country again. I am thankful to all the athletes here and to the U.S. Olympic Committee for understanding the meaning of the Olympic ideal. I feel like a part of the team. I know I'm not, but I feel like a teammate."

Faisel will remain here for another five weeks before he returns to Australia, where he expects to graduate with a business degree from the University of Central Queensland in October.

Faisel's bid to qualify for the Turin Olympics, which begin Feb. 10, 2006, could be a complicated and politically charged process. The most common way to qualify, World Cup rankings and top challenge race finishes, are not very likely options. Racers no longer qualify by being the best from their nation. Faisel's best chance may be as a wild-card entry, an alternative chosen by the I.O.C. and used to allow several Iraqi athletes to participate in the 2004 Athens Games.

But first, international skeleton regulations require that Faisel must safely complete a minimum of five international races on three different tracks. For his debut, he is expected to compete in the America's Cup, back-to-back international races Jan. 29 and Jan. 30 at Lake Placid.

Seated inside the training center as a blowing snow blanketed the Adirondacks recently, Faisel smiled at the thought of his first competition.

"This seemed so unrealistic to the people around me two months ago," he said. "Obviously, it's still not going to be easy. But I remember the feeling when our Iraqi athletes marched into the Athens Games. It was powerful. I don't want us to wait four more years to feel it again.

"I am racing on Jan. 30, the day of the Iraqi elections. That will be my vote for a better Iraq. I'm pretty sure it's a good vote."

We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports,
and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appears in print on January 27, 2005, on Page D00001 of the National edition with the headline: SKI REPORT; Headfirst Dash To Finish Line For Iraqi Racer. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe